Bruno Liljefors

The years around 1890 were significant for Bruno Liljefors. He had already made his mark as an artist earlier in the 1880s, but this position was further strengthened by a 2nd class medal at the Paris Salon and a gold medal at a collective exhibition in Munich in 1889. A further recognition was that Liljefors was appointed to replace Carl Larsson as a teacher at the Valand Art School in Gothenburg during the period 1888-89. This was also an important time artistically.

Liljefors began to leave behind the influence of Japanese art with a cropped main subject dominating the foreground while the background played a secondary role. Instead, Liljefors began to take an interest in the surrounding nature and depicted it with the same sharpness as the animals and people. This change can be traced back to Liljefors' passion for photography. In 1889, Peter Henry Emerson published his highly acclaimed book “Naturalistic Photography For Students of the Art”.

Liljefors was not only an artist, but also an observer of animal life and movement. His ability to reproduce the anatomy of animals and the way they interact with nature, as well as to portray nature from their perspective, made his works both realistic and dramatic. This artistic approach made him a leading figure in the Nordic art world, and his works have continued to be appreciated for their unique blend of scientific rigour and artistic poetry.